Video disc having an aspect ratio information and video disc player having an aspect ratio converting function

ABSTRACT

Image information is reproduced in respectively correspondence to monitors of different aspect ratios as in the NTSC system or HDTV system adaptive type. The image information recorded on a video disc is reproduced. An ID signal held in the video disc is detected. The aspect ratio of the image information to be generated is designated. Only when the aspect ratio indicated by the detected ID signal differs from the designated aspect ratio, the reproduced image information is converted into the image information of the designated aspect ratio. A standardized image signal is produced on the basis of the converted image information.

This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/638,003 filed Aug. 14,2000 U.S. Pat. No. 6,463,210, which is a continuation of applicationSer. No. 08/334,374 filed Nov. 3, 1994 now abandoned, which is acontinuation of application Ser. No. 08/115,771 filed Sep. 3, 1993 nowabandoned; the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a video disc and video disc player and,more particularly, to a video disc having an aspect ratio informationand videodisc player having a function of converting aspect ratio.

2. Description of the Related Art

An HD video signal in the HDTV (High Definition TeleVision) system isrecorded onto a recording medium such as an optical type video disc orthe like and is reproduced therefrom. As literatures regarding such arecording/reproducing method, there are Japanese Patent Kokai Nos.63-245082, 1-280980, and the like. It is desirable that the HD videosignal reproduced by the above method is displayed as an image by amonitor such as a CRT or the like having an aspect ratio (the ratio ofthe frame width to the fame height in display) of 16:9 corresponding tothe HDTV system. The monitors having the aspect ratio of 16:9 arenowadays being widespread and the HD video signal cannot cope with thecase where the user intends to display the image by a monitor having anaspect ratio of 4:3 corresponding to the existing NTSC system.

Such an HDTV monitor cannot also cope with the case where the recordingsignal is reproduced from a video disc to record the existing NTSC videosignal and its image is displayed by the monitor having the aspect ratioof 16:9.

OBJECT AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is made in consideration of the above problems andit is an object of the invention to provide a video disc and a videodisc player which can reproduce respective video signals incorrespondence to monitors having different aspect ratios such asmonitors corresponding to the NTSC system and HDTV system.

According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided avideo disc on which image information has digitally been recorded by apredetermined format having data blocks to enclose at least image datain a program area, wherein the video disc is characterized by having anID (identification) signal indicative of an aspect ratio of the imageinformation.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is providedan information recording method of a video disc, whereby imageinformation is recorded by a predetermined format having a data block toenclose at least image data in a program area of the video disc, whereinthe recording method is characterized in that an ID signal indicative ofan aspect ratio of the image information is held in the video disc.

A video disc player of a further aspect of the present inventioncomprises: reproducing means for reproducing image information recordedon the above-mentioned video disc; detecting means for detecting an IDsignal held in the video disc; designating means for designating anaspect ratio of image information to be generated; and image informationprocessing means for converting the image information reproduced by thereproducing means into the image information of the aspect ratiodesignated by the designating means only in the case where the ID signaldetected by the detecting means differs from the aspect ratio designatedby the designating means, and for producing an image signal having apredetermined format for system on the basis of the converted imageinformation.

According to the video disc of the invention, the recorded ID signalindicates the aspect ratio of the image information.

According to the information recording method of the video disc of theinvention, in addition to the image information which is recorded ontothe video disc, its aspect ratio information is also held in the videodisc.

According to the video disc player of the invention, the ID signalindicative of the aspect ratio is detected from the video disc and, onlyin the case where the aspect ratio indicated by the detected ID signaldiffers from the designated aspect ratio, the reproduced imageinformation is converted into the image information of the designatedaspect ratio.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a video disc player according toan embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of an image data processing circuitin FIG. 1; and

FIG. 3 is a state table for explaining the operation of the video discplayer in FIGS. 1 and 2.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF A PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detailhereinbelow with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a video disc player according toan embodiment of the invention.

In the diagram, reference numeral 1 denotes a video disc in which imageinformation of the NTSC or HDTV system has digitally been recorded by apredetermined format having a data block which can store at least imagedata in a program area as in, for example, a CD-ROM system. What iscalled TOC (Table Of Contents) information has been recorded in alead-in area on the video disc 1. Such TOC information is a maincharacteristic portion of the video disc in the embodiment and is formedso as to include ID (identification) data indicating whether therecorded image data is of the NTSC system or the HDTV system. While thevideo disc 1 is rotated by a spindle motor 2, the recorded informationis read out by a pickup 3.

The pickup 3 supplies the read-out recorded information as a read-signalto an RF amplifier 4. The RF amplifier 4 amplifies the suppliedread-signal and sends the amplified signal to a demodulating circuit 5.The demodulating circuit 5 sequentially demodulates the outputread-signal of the RF amplifier 4 into the data and supplies thedemodulated data to a data separating circuit 6. The data separatingcircuit 6 supplies the image data in the demodulated data to an imagedata memory 7 and supplies the ID data to an ID data memory 8.

The image data memory 7 has a capacity such that a pixel data group toform an image of the aspect ratio of 4:3 according to the NTSC systemand a pixel data group to form an image of the aspect ratio of 16:9according to the HDTV system can be stored every frame. Output data fromthe image data memory 7 is sent to an image data processing circuit 9.The image data processing circuit 9 executes an aspect ratio conversionor the like, which will be explained hereinlater. An output image signalof the processor 9 is supplied to a monitor such as a CRT or the like(not shown).

The ID data memory 8 holds the ID data from the data separating circuit6 and gives the ID data to a CPU 10.

In accordance with an output signal of a key sensing circuit 11 to sensethe key operation on a front panel of such a video disc player or thekey operation by a remote controller and with the data held in the IDdata memory 8, the CPU 10 supplies a clock switching signal to a systemclock generating circuit 12 and also supplies a data processingswitching signal to the image data processing circuit 9. An outputsignal of the key sensing circuit 11 includes a signal indicative of theaspect ratio information designated by the user. The system clockgenerating circuit 12 generates each timing signal to decide a dataprocessing rate of each of the demodulating circuit 5, data separatingcircuit 6, and image data memory 7 and switches the frequency of eachtiming signal in accordance with the clock switching signal from the CPU10.

A specific construction of the image data processing circuit 9 will nowbe described.

FIG. 2 is a schematic block diagram of such an image data processingcircuit and the portions similar to those in FIG. 1 are designated bythe same reference numerals.

In the diagram, the output data of the image data memory 7 is suppliedto an input terminal of a switching circuit 21. The switching circuit 21selectively transmits the data which is supplied to the input terminalto either one of the input terminal of a switching circuit 22 and theinput terminal of a switching circuit 23 in accordance with a dataprocessing switching signal C0 from the CPU 10. The switching circuit 22selects and transmits the data which is supplied to the input terminalto either one of an HDTV signal producing circuit 24 and a decimationcircuit 25 in accordance with a data processing switching signal C1 fromthe CPU 10. The switching circuit 23 selects and transmits the datawhich is supplied to the input terminal to either one of an NTSC signalproducing circuit 26 and an oversampling circuit 27 in accordance withthe data processing switching signal C1 from the CPU 10.

The HDTV signal producing circuit 24 adds various kinds of sync signalsand the like to the image data of the HDTV system and produces the videosignal of the HDTV system and generates it.

The decimation circuit 25 comprises, for example, horizontal andvertical decimation filters and generates the image data at apredetermined sampling rate lower than that of the input signal. Theoutput image data of the decimation circuit 25 is supplied to a memorycircuit 28 for converting the aspect ratio. The memory circuit 28 oncewrites the image data from the decimation circuit 25 into its memoryarea and subsequently reads out the written image data and supplies tothe NTSC signal producing circuit 26 on the basis of the NTSC system.The image data of the aspect ratio of 16:9 can be converted into theimage data of the aspect ratio of 4:3 by the decimation circuit 25 andthe aspect ratio converting memory circuit 28.

That is, pixel data amounts in the horizontal and vertical directions ofa frame of image in the HDTV system which is supplied to the decimationcircuit 25 are larger than in the NTSC system. The decimation circuit 25executes so-called a data thinning-out process in the vertical directionsuch that the image of the aspect ratio of 4:3 which is obtained byforming non-picture portions (black patterns or the like) at the upperand lower positions of a laterally long image of the aspect ratio of16:9 in, for example, so-called a full-frame mode is sampled in thevertical direction by the number of scanning lines of the NTSC system.Even in the horizontal direction, the data in the horizontal directionis thinned out such as to sample the image by the number of effectivesamples per one line of the NTSC system. The data which is thinned outis sequentially once stored into the memory circuit 28 for convertingthe aspect ratio. Those data is read out on the basis of the NTSC systemtogether with the image data of the upper and lower non-picture portionswhich have previously been stored, so that it is converted into theimage data of the aspect ratio of 4:3. According to this mode, althoughthe original image of the aspect ratio of 16:9 can be displayed as awhole, since the non-picture portions are added at the upper and lowerpositions and have been matched with the aspect ratio of 4:3, a reducedimage as a whole is derived.

The conversion of the aspect ratio is not limited to the abovefull-frame mode but there are other various modes. For example, thereare various kinds of modes such as side cutting mode for cutting out theaspect component of 4:3 from the image of the aspect ratio of 16:9, acompression full-frame mode, and a zooming mode. It is sufficient toproperly select and apply the mode that is optimum to the system fromthose modes.

The NTSC signal producing circuit 26 produces a standardized videosignal of the NTSC system by forming predetermined luminance signal andchrominance signal and various kinds of sync signals according to theimage data of the NTSC system and generates the video signal.

The oversampling circuit 27 comprises, for instance, horizontal andvertical interpolation filters and generates image data at apredetermined sampling rate higher than that of the input data. Theoutput image data of the oversampling circuit 27 is supplied to a memorycircuit 29 for converting the aspect ratio. The memory circuit 29 oncewrites the image signal from the oversampling circuit 27 into its memoryarea and reads out the written image signal and supplies to the HDTVsignal producing circuit 24 on the basis of the HDTV system. The imagedata of the aspect ratio of 4:3 is converted into the image data of theaspect ratio of 16:9 by the oversampling circuit 27 and the memorycircuit 29.

That is, pixel data amounts in both of the horizontal and verticaldirections of a frame of image in the NTSC system which is supplied tothe oversampling circuit 27 are smaller than in the HDTV system. What iscalled a data interpolation in the vertical direction is executed by theoversampling circuit 27 in a manner such that the image of the aspectratio of 16:9 which is obtained by forming the non-picture portions(black patterns or the like) at the right and left positions of theimage of the aspect ratio of 4:3 in, for example, so-called a full-framemode is oversampled in the vertical direction by the number of scanninglines of the HDTV system. In the horizontal direction as well, a datainterpolation in the horizontal direction is also similarly executed soas to oversample the image by the number of effective samples per lineof the HDTV system. Those interpolated data is sequentially once storedinto the memory circuit 29 and is subsequently read out on the basis ofthe HDTV system together with the image data in the right and leftnon-picture portions which has previously been stored, therebyaccomplishing the conversion into the image data of the aspect ratio of16:9. According to this mode, although the whole original image of theaspect ratio of 4:3 can be displayed, the non-picture portions are addedto the right and left sides and the image is matched with that of theaspect ratio of 4:3, so that the image which was reduced as a whole isderived.

In a manner similar to the conversion of the aspect ratio from 16:9 to4:3, the conversion of the aspect ratio in this instance is not limitedto the foregoing full-frame mode but any other various modes can be alsoapplied.

The operation of the video disc player will now be described in detailwith reference to a state table in FIG. 3.

First, the TOC information is read out from the lead-in area immediatelyafter the reproduction of the video disc 1 was started. The ID data inthe TOC information is held in the ID data memory 8.

In the case where the ID data indicating that the image data recorded onthe video disc 1 is of the NTSC system was given from the ID data memory8 to the CPU 10, when an image output command for displaying by the NTSCsystem is generated by an output signal (hereinafter, referred to as akey sense signal) of the key sensing circuit 11, the CPU 10 sets thedata processing switching signal C0 to the logical value “0” and alsosets the data processing switching signal C1 to the logical value “0” soas to transmit the read-out image data in a state of the NTSC system,that is, so as not to convert the processing content of the image data.Since each of the switching circuits 21, 22, and 23 sets the outputdestination of the input data to the other output terminal Y by the dataprocessing switching signals, the output image data from the image datamemory 7 is directly supplied to the NTSC signal producing circuit 26.

In this case, on the other hand, when the image output command fordisplaying by the HDTV system is generated by the key sense signal, theCPU 10 sets the data processing switching signal C0 to the logical value“0” and also sets the data processing switching signal C1 to the logicalvalue “1” so as to convert the read-out image data of the NTSC systeminto the data of the HDTV system. The switching circuit 21 sets theoutput destination of the input data to the other output terminal Y bythe data processing switching signal C0 of the logical value “0”. Theswitching circuit 23 sets the output destination of the input data toone output terminal X by the data processing switching signal C1 of thelogical value “1”. The output image data from the image data memory 7,therefore, is supplied to the HDTV signal producing circuit 24 throughthe oversampling circuit 27 and the memory circuit 29 for conversion ofthe aspect ratio.

In the case where the ID data indicating that the image idea recorded onthe video disc 1 is of the HDTV system was given from the ID data memory8 to the CPU 10, when an image output command for displaying by the NTSCsystem is generated by the key sense signal, the CPU 10 sets the dataprocessing switching signal C0 into the logical value “1” and sets thedata processing switching signal C1 into the logical value “1” so as toconvert the read-out image data into the data of the NTSC system. Eachof the switching circuits 21, 22, and 23 sets the output destination ofthe input data into one output terminal X by the data processingswitching signals, so that the output image data from the image datamemory 7 is supplied to the NTSC signal producing circuit 26 through thedecimation circuit 25 and the memory circuit 28 for conversion of theaspect ratio.

In this case, on the other hand, when the image output command fordisplaying by the HDTV system is generated by the key sense signal, theCPU 10 sets the data processing switching signal C0 into the logicalvalue “1” and sets the data processing switching signal C1 into thelogical value “0” so as to transmit the read-out image data in a stateof the HDTV system, namely, so as not to convert the processing contentof the image data. The switching circuit 21 sets the output destinationof the input data into one output terminal X by the data processingswitching signal C0 of the logical value “1”. The switching circuit 22sets the output destination of the input data into the other outputterminal Y by the data processing switching signal C1 of the logicalvalue “0”. The output image data from the image data memory 7 istherefore directly supplied to the HDTV signal producing circuit 24.

According to the video disc and its player of the embodiment, the IDsignal indicating whether the recorded image data is of the NTSC systemor the HDTV system is recorded in the lead-in area of the video disc asa part of the TOC information. The ID signal is read out at the start ofthe reproduction. The aspect ratio of the reproduction image data isconverted in accordance with the system indicated by the ID signal andthe system indicated by the key sense signal. It is, therefore, possibleto cope with the aspect ratio of the monitor which is provided by a userirrespective of the kind of monitor connected to the video outputterminal.

In the embodiment which has been described above as an example, the IDsignal indicates whether the recorded image data is of the NTSC systemor the HDTV system is recorded in the lead-in area of the video disc asa part of the TOC information and the ID signal is read out at the startof the reproduction. The method of obtaining such ID information,however, is not limited to the above method but there are various kindsof methods. For example, it is also possible to construct in a mannersuch that a hole or a groove indicative of predetermined ID informationis formed on, for instance, the side surface of the disc casing and sucha hole or groove is detected by a disc casing switch sensing circuit 13(FIG. 1), thereby obtaining such ID information. It is, further, alsopossible to time-divisionally multiplex the ID signal to the image dataor to record the ID signal into a control data portion in apredetermined data block upon recording of the image information ontothe disc.

Although above explanation has been made on the assumption that theimage data of the aspect ratio of 4:3 is the data of the NTSC system, itis also possible to use the image data of the PAL system or the SECAMsystem or to use a common format of CCIR601. The invention is notlimited to the construction such that the aspect ratio is designated bythe key sense signal but also includes a construction such that in theinitial operation of the player, the aspect ratio as what is called adefault value is designated.

According to the video disc and the information recording method of thepresent invention as described in detail above, the video disc carriesthe ID signal indicative of the aspect ratio of the image information.According to the video disc player of the present invention, the IDsignal indicative of the aspect ratio is detected from the video disc.Only when the aspect ratio indicated by the detected ID signal differsfrom the designated aspect ratio, the reproduced image information isconverted into the image information of the designated aspect ratio. Itis, therefore, possible to respectively reproduce in correspondence tothe monitors of different aspect ratios as in the monitor of theadaptive type of the NTSC system or the HDTV system.

By applying the disc and the video disc player according to the presentinvention, there is no need to publish the same software (imageinformation) by two kinds of video discs (for example, the disc for theNTSC system and the disc for the HDTV system).

1. An information reproducing apparatus for reproducing information froma recording medium, the recording medium comprising image data having apredetermined aspect ratio and identification data which indicates theaspect ratio of the image data, the apparatus comprising, a readingdevice which reads the identification data and the image data, theidentification data being read prior to the image data; a first memorywhich stores the identification data; a second memory which stores theimage data; a data separating circuit which supplies the identificationdata to the first memory and supplies the image data to the secondmemory; an input device which enables a user to designate manually amanually designated aspect ratio of an image to be generated; acontroller which compares the manually designated aspect ratio and theidentification data and generates a control signals; and an image dataprocessing circuit which generates video signal to be displayed with themanually designated aspect ration in accordance with the control signal.2. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image data processingcircuit generates the video signal under one of a plurality ofconversion modes.
 3. The apparatus according to claim 2, wherein theconversion modes include full-frame mode, side cutting mode, compressionfull-frame mode and zooming mode.
 4. The apparatus according to claim 1,wherein the image data processing circuit includes a decimation circuitwhich converts high definition image data into lower definition imagedata.
 5. The apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the image dataprocessing circuit includes an interpolating circuit which convertslower definition image data into high definition image data.
 6. A methodfor reproducing information from a recording medium, the recordingmedium comprising image data having a predetermined aspect ratio andidentification data which indicates the aspect ratio of the image data,the method comprising the steps of: reading the identification data;storing the identification data; reading the image data; storing theimage data; detecting a manually designated aspect ratio that ismanually designated by a user; comparing the manually designated aspectratio and the identification data generating video signal to bedisplayed with the manually designated aspect ratio in accordance withthe comparison result.
 7. The method according to claim 6, wherein thestep of generating video signal the video signal is generated under oneof a plurality of conversion modes.
 8. The method according to claim 7,wherein the conversion modes include full-frame mode, side cutting mode,compression full-frame mode and zooming mode.
 9. The method according toclaim 6, wherein the step of generating video signal includes a step ofconverting high definition image data into lower definition image databy decimation.
 10. The method according to claim 7, wherein the step ofgenerating video signal includes a step of converting lower definitionimage data into high definition image data by interpolation.
 11. Aninformation recording medium, to be reproduced by an informationreproducing apparatus having an input device, the medium comprising:image data having a predetermined aspect ratio, and identification datawhich indicates the predetermined aspect ratio of the image data,wherein the identification data is compared with a manually designatedaspect ratio inputted by a user with the input device, wherein the imagedata is converted into a video signal having the manually designatedaspect ratio in accordance with the comparison result.
 12. The mediumaccording to claim 11, wherein the image data is converted to the videosignal under one of a plurality of conversion modes.
 13. The mediumaccording to claim 12, wherein the conversion modes include full-framemode, side cutting mode, compression full-frame mode and zooming mode.14. The medium according to claim 11, wherein the image data isdecimated so that the video signal has a lower definition image.
 15. Themedium according to claim 11, wherein the image data is interpolated sothat the video signal has a higher definition image.
 16. A method forrecording and reproducing image information by means of a recordingmedium, which comprises: recording image information on said recordingmedium together with identification data indicating a predeterminedsingle aspect ratio; reading said image information and identificationdata from said recording medium; comparing the predetermined singleaspect ratio of said identification data with a manually designatedaspect ratio so as to determine a determined aspect ratio; andreproducing said image information with the determined aspect ratio.